


While I'm Gone

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Blood and Water [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 13:30:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8491606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Atlantis, Evan Lorne, when the 2IC has to take over leadership."Evan is in command while John goes home for his father's funeral.Tag to 4x15 Outcast.





	

Evan was in the command office triaging requisition files and trying to find a way to conveniently misplace the photograph of Queen Harmony’s special coronation painting when a shadow fell over him.  
  
He looked up. It was John. “Sir?” John was always Sir or Colonel when they were wearing all of their clothes (and sometimes when they weren’t).  
  
John’s face was pale, his expression terribly blank. “My father’s dead.”  
  
Evan was on his feet in an instant. “Was it -?”  
  
“Carter told me it was a heart attack, but I don’t know if it was an actual heart attack or -” John cut himself off. If it was murder. If it was an act of war, or vengeance, or just The Life being the death of yet another person.  
  
John closed the door with a wave of his hand. “I don’t know how Dave even found me to pass the news on. He barely told me when he got married or had children or - I have to go. Home. To pay my respects, and see -”  
  
“John, no.” Evan stepped around the desk. “You can’t. It’s too dangerous.”  
  
“We face Wraith out here.” John didn’t even comment on the use of his first name. “It’s just a funeral.”  
  
Evan curled a hand around John’s wrist. “It’s never just a funeral.”  
  
John curled his fingers through Evan’s, squeezed for just a moment. “You’re in command while I’m gone. That’s what I came by to say.”  
  
Evan disengaged his hand from John’s reluctantly. “Yes, sir.”  
  
John took a deep, shuddering breath. Then he stepped into Evan’s space, crowded him up against the desk, and kissed him, deeply and thoroughly. He stepped back when Evan was breathless and aroused and said, “I’ll come back, I promise. Just hold the fort down while I’m gone.”  
  
Evan nodded, unable to speak, and John left the office without a word.  
  
When Evan reported to Control to see John off, he saw that Ronon was going with him.  
  
He turned to Carter. “Why Ronon and not McKay?”  
  
“Rodney has to oversee repairs to the shield on M7G-677.”  
  
“The planet with the kids?”  
  
Carter nodded. “Otherwise, Rodney would have gone with him.”  
  
“Fair enough.” Evan knew Rodney wasn’t fond of kids, but he wasn’t about to hang them out to dry as Wraith food either. Evan watched Ronon and John step through the gate, watched the event horizon vanish behind them. He murmured an Irish blessing under his breath.  
  
Carter looked at him sharply. “What was that?”  
  
“Just something one of my uncles used to say, when someone departed.” Evan eyed her.  
  
“O’Neill used to say something like it, sometimes.” Carter searched Evan’s face, and he pasted on an expression of pure innocence, and Carter finally looked away.  
  
O’Neill was an Irish name. Lorne was an English name, meant forsaken, like _forlorn_. Lorne wasn’t the name Evan had been born with, but no one knew that, not even John.  
  
“You’re dismissed, Major.”  
  
“Yes, ma’am.” Evan saluted respectfully before he departed.  
  
John would be gone for an entire week, and while he was absent, Evan would keep things running smoothly, so when he returned, he could step right back into command without a hitch. And Evan would sleep in a cold, lonely bed, and he would worry any time he was alone, and he would miss John fiercely, and he would beg the universe to send him home.


End file.
